There was no lack of motivation when it came to Burnaby Mountain’s approach to Wednesday’s senior boys league soccer final.
Facing the undefeated and archrival Burnaby Central Wildcats, the Lions could chalk up a host of reasons they’d be up for the game.
The underdog? Check. Evening a score? Check. Pride of the city? Double-check.
Everything that could fuel Burnaby Mountain’s approach to start the Burnaby-New West playoff final was used, and proved critical in a 3-2 upset win over Burnaby Central to lock up the zone’s No. 1-berth heading into the next week’s cross-over playoffs with North Shore rivals.
First-half goals from Ojas Dabir, Maksim Boyle and Andrea Sansoni spirited the
Lions into a solid lead, but the squad needed to hang on for dear life in the final minutes, as the Wildcats funnelled a lot of pressure towards Mountain netminder Gustavo Halfen.
For Burnaby Mountain, it was a big result, to say the least.
“It’s huge, knowing this is our first senior banner and knowing we’ve laid the foundation for next year, that’s pretty important,” remarked captain Sam Boyle. “We wanted to stay focused knowing that it was a tough team. We’d lost to them previously and knew it would be tough. We had to stay focused, stay calm and stick to our game plan.”
It worked well, even when adversity struck. After Dabir opened the scoring at the 12-minute mark, the ’Cats’ Carson Bushman-Dormond tied it five minutes later. Mountain retook the lead with 15 minutes left in the half on Maksim Boyle’s penalty shot after a tackle inside the box.
Sansoni drilled a 25-yard blast that handcuffed the Wildcats keeper for what proved to be the winner.
But in the second half, Central carried a lot of the play, pulling within a goal on
Anthony Paige-Vincelli’s penalty shot with 20 minutes left on the clock.
Then the Lions lost a player due to a red card, giving Central an advantage in numbers with 10 minutes remaining. The Mountain goalkeeper made a couple of big saves, and his defence did the rest.
“We were the underdogs. Central was the best team in regular season play, and they’d only conceded one goal the whole season,” noted head coach Glenn Boyle. “For us to come in the final, when it matters most, and score three, I think speaks volumes to the ability of the boys.”
“Burnaby Mountain played a smart defensive counter-attack game and capitalized on all our mistakes,” Central coach Ivan Steko said. “Although we held the majority of the possession, we were unable to turn that possession into goals or even great scoring chances.”
The Wildcats prevailed 2-0 in their lone league encounter this year and were also 2-0 champions a year ago in the 2017 league final. Getting the upper hand this time around felt extremely sweet, the coach noted.
“I think one of the reasons
we were able to win the banner is that we’re a resilient team. I spoke to the boys about being resilient before the game. They knew it was going to be a tough game, they knew what we were asking of them, and I’m very happy they were able to deliver,” said Glenn Boyle.
Both teams advance to the next stage, which continues Tuesday when both host their counterparts from the North Shore. Mountain goes up against Sentinel, which topped its league, 3 p.m. at Burnaby Lake West, with the winner advancing to the AAA provincial championships. Central hosts the No. 2 North Shore team at the same time, with the victor moving on to play the loser of the No. 1 game.
